Ringtone That Really Gets Under Your Skin - L7 World

Missed calls could soon be a thing of the past. Nokia has filed a patent for magnetic tattoos that vibrate in tune with your phone. The vibrations can be calibrated to distinguish between things like text messages, voice mail, and low battery.

“The magnetic field, when detected by the apparatus, will cause a different effect based on its characteristics,” the patent states. “For example, the magnetic field may cause vibration of one short pulse, multiple short pulses, few long pulses, mixture of short and long pulses, strong pulses, weak pulses, and so on.”

There’s plenty time to decide on a design for your tattoo, according to Associate Professor Roel Vertegaal of Queen’s University. “This isn’t something Nokia will be bringing out next year. I’d say it’s probably 10 years before it hits the market, between the actual product development, and just getting people ready to accept something like this,” Vertegaal told the Toronto Star.